An Expansive History
by Duke Serkol
Summary: Zelda struggles with everything Nintendo fans have learned to live with since December 2011. (Linked Universe One-shot). Authorized rewrite of History by Lets Do That Again.


An Expansive History

**The Legend of Zelda and all related media are property of Nintendo.**

**Foreword:**

This is an expanded rewrite of the story named History, by Lets Do That Again. This started as a fun endeavor for my own enjoyment. Once I was done, I decided to show it to the original author and was told: "I love it! I say post it." So, with Lets Do it Again's blessing (and a disclaimer that should the author ever wish it taken down for any reason, it would be), here it is.

One more thing to note: for reasons highlighted in the original author's other story The Timeline's Barely Even a Line at This Point, in order to tell a more functional chronology closer to Hyrule Hystoria/Encyclopedia, unlike the original story, this new version takes some liberties from the established Linked Universe canon... or rather, it doesn't take the same liberties from the official canon of the series that the A.U. did. That is to say, no Links are merged. Wind hasn't gone through Spirit Tracks, Legend did not star in A Link Between Worlds and Four was not in the Minish Cap.

With that said, on to the story.

**/+/+/+/+/**

"Anyone have a clue where we are now?" Four asked, staring out at the landscape before them.

"This is my Hyrule," Wild said, gazing at the surroundings.

"The place with those crazy Ganon worshippers you told us about?" Warrior asked.

"Is there another Hyrule where that's a problem?" Wind asked, sending Warrior a cheeky grin.

"Mine, actually, but they were mostly just Deku Scrubs, so it wasn't much of an issue." Four noted.

"We're close to Kakariko Village," Wild said, pointing to the northeast, "It's just over that ridge."

"Be nice to have an actual bed again, at least" Sky added, arching his back with a groan.

"Will that be a good place to stock on supplies?" Twilight asked.

"Dunno if I like the idea," Wild mumbled.

"Why not?" Time asked, cocking a brow.

"I'm kind of…famous there."

Legend grimaced, "Bad famous?"

"No, no. The, uh, good kind," Wild quickly stated, rubbing his scarred neck.

Sky placed a comforting hand on the young man's shoulder. "We don't have to go if you don't want us to." A couple of the other Heroes frowned at the thought, but all of them reasoned that some meager comforts weren't worth forcing their friend into an uncomfortable situation.

Wild shook Sky off, "Nah, it's fine. Just, uh…everyone there is a Sheikah, and knows who I w—am. Who I am." Before anyone could comment on the slip, he grimaced, "They've all probably been worrying their heads off while I've been gone."

"Well, we should inform them of your well-being," Time said with a light smirk.

**/+/+/+/+/**

"I just don't understand!" Princess Zelda cried; her voice raw as she angrily scrubbed away tears. "Where could he have gone?"

Impa hummed sympathetically, "Link is a resourceful man, Princess," she said, speaking with a confidence she was sorely lacking. "I'm sure he will be fine."

"But it's been three months," the heir to Hyrule's throne sniffled.

"There have been sightings of him," Paya said soothingly. She left out, Impa knew, the conflicting and bizarre nature of those sightings.

"Then why hasn't he come back," the Princess stifled a sob, "is it because… I _failed_ him?"

Impa cursed internally. Though leagues more confident than she once was, the Princess still suffered the occasional blow. But before she could attempt to comfort her charge, Cado and Dorian burst into the room.

"Lady Impa!" Cado cried, "It's Master Link. He's here!"

The three women gasped. "Truly?" Princess Zelda said, rising to her feet.

"Yes," Dorian answered. He then pursed his lips, to Impa's confusion, "But, er there's several of… I mean… see for yourselves."

The two men stepped aside, allowing Link to enter. Followed by Link, and Link, and Link…

Impa, Paya, and the Princess gasped as six men and two yonger boys who could be each other's reflection if not for their clothes, entered the room. All looked similar but not exactly like Link. Impa had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things, but lo and behold, there they all were.

Link—_their_ Link—cleared his throat, bashfully waving, "Hello Impa, Paya… Princess."

_THUD_

"Oh my—Paya!" Princess Zelda gasped as the young girl slumped to the floor. Link rushed forward, a stricken look on his face, while the…others looked on in various degrees of perplexity.

"What's wrong with her?" asked the one wearing a black-furred vest.

"Probably needs water," said the boy wearing a blue shirt emblazoned with a white lobster, "See it all the time when out at sea."

"Do you honestly think they lack fresh water?" asked the one in the red tunic. The boy stuck his tongue out childishly, making the one in red smirk.

"Link," Princess Zelda said, having gained her bearings, "What on ear—"

"Oooh…" Impa tore herself away from the strange men in favor of looking at her granddaughter. "Grandmother, Princess, I had the strangest dream. Master Link had returned, but there was more…than…" she trailed off, eyes widening as she once more caught sight of the eight newcomers.

The one wearing a blue scarf had in the meantime stepped over to her and now squatted down, grinning cockily, "Hello there." he greeted extending a hand, intending to help her stand up.

Paya's face reddened to a shade just shy of a tomato. She let out a soft 'eep!' and, once more, went limp, dead to the world.

"…Was it something I said?" the blue-scarfed one asked. This prompted the oldest one—the one that most looked like a veteran swordman in Impa's wizened eyes—to pull him back by the scarf and smack him upside the head "Apologies. We can't take him anywhere."

Impa suspected she had an idea, however partial, of what was happening.

"I believe," she said, getting everyone's attention, "That we should talk."

"That sounds like a good idea, Impa," their Link said. The elderly Sheikah made note of the way several of their guests looked at her (two of them surprised, two others looking smug, like they had a suspicion confirmed), but let it pass in favor of hearing their tale.

**/+/+/+/+/**

Zelda laid Paya to rest in her room (Link, her Link, having carried her there, then making himself scarce before she came to), leaving her with a barebones explanation of what was going on.

Once back downstairs, Zelda took Link- Wild, as he was now dubbed, aside to speak privately.

"I just—I mean—It all sounds so…" Zelda stammered, constantly interrupting herself. Wild smiled softly, sympathetically patting her shoulder. She sighed heavily, "Oh, I just don't know how you can keep it all straight Link."

Wild shrugged, leaning back to stare at the other versions of him, who were either conversing with the Sheikah in the room (Time, Sky, Legend and Hyrule) or keeping to themselves (everyone else). "It got a little easier in time; you know, as we learned about each other. Our histories."

"Ah! That's right!" Zelda gasped, startling Wild. "Link, think of the opportunity we have before us!" She started to gush, "Oh, the chance to learn our world's history from people—from the Heroes—that actually lived during our most momentous times!"

Wild had his doubts but didn't have the heart to tear away the hope and wonder shining in her eyes. Instead, he whistled loudly, His counterparts all turned towards them, walking forward when he beckoned them. He gestured to Zelda, "She has some questions for you all."

Seven pair of eyes (one was just a single eye actually) of varying shades of blue plus one black homed in on Zelda, who, Wild could tell, was doing her best not to fidget. "Um…hello, everyone." She received several nods and one enthusiastic greeting, a hearty wave from Wind. Wild could see that Zelda was having the most difficulty keeping eye-contact with Time—not surprising.

She cleared her throat, "As you all know, I am Princess Zelda. Er," she bit her lower lip, "the current Princess Zelda. Rather—"

"You're Zelda," Twilight cut her off, "let's leave it at that."

She nodded, "Quite. Now, I don't know how much…Wild, has told you about me." Wild thanked whatever gods were listening that everyone managed to keep a straight face. "But I've always considered myself a scholar. And standing before me is an incredibly rare opportunity to learn history from those that have actually lived through it!" She did her best, but Wild could hear the half-squeal of excitement slip past her lips.

Hyrule spoke first, "We're not needed anywhere, are we?"

"Why not, I say," Warrior stated, sitting down without further preamble. Legend and Time eyed the man, but once they sat down, everyone else did as well.

Zelda hummed excitedly, sitting down and pulling out her notepad and writing utensils. She then looked over her shoulder, smiling softly and beckoning Wild to sit next to her. "So, I suppose I must ask, who among you is the, er, 'earliest'?"

"That'd be me," Sky raised his hand.

"Ah! And you are…?"

"Sky," the man said with a genial smile.

"Oh! We have records of a hero that soared through the sky! That must have been you."

"I would imagine so, yes. But as for your question, I'm in fact the absolute first, actually." he said.

"Is that so?" Zelda prompted him for more information, furiously writing on her notepad. Meanwhile Paya re-emerged from her room for the sake of performing her cleaning chores, trying to incospicuosly listen in on the conversation.

"My journey had the goal of reforging the sword of the Goddess into the Master Sword as well as growing within me the spirit of the hero that we all share. Hylia had planned this so that I could put an end to the incarnation of demise."

"The what?" Zelda questioned.

"Just think the calamity, except more… primeval?" Wild offered to which Sky nodded.

"Don't forget the part about how she enticed you into action, Sky." Warrior said snidely, earning an elbow to his gut.

"What does he mean?" Zelda asked.

"Hylia, through Zelda—my Zelda,"

"'Your Zelda'? The princess from your era?"

"Ah, well she's not a princess, we dont have royalty. I guess I made it sound like… uh, that is-"

"They are the sappiest, most adorable lovebirds you'll ever see." Warrior cut in, chuckling as he received another slap on the back of his head.

Zelda's cheeks turned pink at the mention of another Link and Zelda being very much in love and a crash was heard. Everybody turned their heads to see Paya hurriedly scooping up something "Ah! I'm s-sorry, please pay no attention to m-me." Albeit with a few raised eyebrows, her wish was granted.

"So what about the Goddess and… your Zelda?" the Princess spurred.

Sky went on to explain "Right, Hylia's plan was for me to go on my journey so that I could release my Zelda from having to use her power to upkeep the seal put by the Goddess on Demise."

"Ah, the sealing power the runs within my bloodline!" Zelda noted, to which Sky nodded. "So the Goddess knew you'd become close to her and bestowed the power on her? So that you would become the hero?"

Sky fidgetred "Not… quite. You see, my Zelda, she IS the Goddess reincarnated as a mortal."

Zelda gasped (as did Paya, unnoticed) "What?! So the reason the power flows through my bloodline is I descend from the Goddess?!"

Sky chuckled "So it would seem. Quite the shock, isn't it? Imagine finding that out about your childhood friend."

Just looking at her face, Wild could hear the gears turning in Zelda's head. "But wait, that means… the plan of the Goddess was to exploit your emotions to defeat this Demise?"

"And it clicked. Pretty quick too, I must say." Time mumbled to himself.

Sky sighed, "Okay, look, she admitted to having engineered our relationship for the sole purpose of getting me to become strong enough to fight against an evil she couldn't properly destroy herself… but she apologized! She said as the Goddess she couldn't really grasp human emotions and upon regaining those memories felt extremely guilty. I forgave her immediately. What else was she to do? Wait for Demise to break free and kill everyone?" He challenged, daring anyone to disagree.

"Well," Time begun "whatever her intentions, it's clear it did not lead to a permanent solution. We are proof of that."

"So what happened?" Zelda asked.

Sky promptly answered "I was not able to completely vanquish Demise. I killed him, but his hatred, his malice, wouldn't be destroyed."

"The malice-! The calamity! That's what you meant by its primeval form." Zelda said turning to Wild.

"In times of strife, when an embodiment of that malice appears," Legend began, "There will always be a 'bearer of the spirit of the hero' and a 'descendant of the Goddess' to stand against the tides of darkness. That is the cycle we are all trapped in."

There was a solemn silence. "…Why don't we move on to the next question?" Wild suggested.

"R-Right," Zelda cleared her throat. "Er…how about we establish a timeline?" Wild winced; that might have been the worst thing to suggest. But the others were eager to leave the previous subject behind, so Sky spoke once more.

"Well, again, I'm the first one. Born and raised in Skyloft; a bunch of islands the Goddess Hylia lifted above the clouds at the end of the war that destroyed our prior civilization."

"Oh! We have tales of a land floating in the sky! What about this war and previous civilization?"

Sky shrugged "I don't know much about that. There was an incredibly advanced civilization, then Demise waged war and it fell, with the humans being harbored safely in the Sky except for the Sheikah who saw to the Goddess plan on the surface. We suppose that's why they have advanced technology, they preserved it from back then."

"That's incredibly interesting!" Zelda exclaimed taking notes "Do you have a time frame for this?"

"Not really… I don't know how many millennias my Zelda upkept the seal after going back to that time from our present."

"-did you just say… she kept him sealed for… millennias?" Zelda uttered in a shaky voice.

Wild took over "She was the mortal incarnation of the Goddess, still with all her memories. You did great. Don't make it a competition."

Zelda gulped and shook herself "Yes, I suppose you're right."

Time decided to pick up where Sky had left off "Well then, eventually the land of the surface became the Kingdom of Hyrule and its people the Hylians."

"Wait" Zelda interrupted looking at Sky "You're not Hylian?"

The aforementioned shook his head. Then Legend, Hyrule and Wind piped up "Me neither", "Same", "Nope".

"But… you all look Hylian." Zelda objected.

"The Hylians owe their name to their connection by blood to the early inhabitants of the kingdom of Hyrule. Sky is from before then, while the rest of us, our blood connection to those people grew thin, too much to consider ourselves Hylian." Legend explained.

"But-"

"No buts." He cut her off, "You want a timeline, we're giving you a timeline. We're not going down any rabbit holes, or we'll be here forever." Zelda glowered at him, and he stared back impassive.

Wind snickered, "You'd know all about rabbits, wouldn't you?"

The other Heroes—including Wild—laughed as Legend's face flushed, lips curling into a pout.

When the laughter subsided, Zelda (who Wild briefly noticed was staring wide-eyed at him), wanting to get things back on track, said, "Moving…on…who's next?"

Four spoke up. "Not me, but I believe this is when my sword was brought to Hyrule," he said, catching Zelda's attention, "There was an invasion of monsters and the Minish brought a sacred sword for the humans to protect themselves with. Much later, the sword was broken by the mage Vaati but a hero reforged it into the Four Sword and used it to defeat the fiend. I believe the sword was later drawn and used against him again, resulting in the evil mage being sealed inside it."

Zelda nodded when it became apparent that Four had nothing more to say about that, she refrained from telling the young hero that the Minish were merely an old make-believe story for children, now mostly forgotten. She scanned the others to see whose turn it actually was.

Time said, "I'm the next one in line. The Kingdom of Hyrule had long been established by my time; the Zora, Goron, and Gerudo had carved out their own homes within the country." He hummed, staring up at the ceiling thoughtfully, "There was also a Civil War that ended around the time of my birth, apparently."

"Apparently?" Zelda asked, perplexed.

Time shrugged, "My mother was killed in it, fatally wounded she fled into the forest with newborn me in her arms. I was raised by the Great Deku Tree among the Kokiri, the children of the forest, so I don't know exactly when the war ended, some time within my first ten years of life, I imagine."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Zelda said empathically.

Time nodded "It was then that the Gerudo King, Ganondorf, devised his plan to conquer Hyrule."

"Wait, Ganon-dorf?!" Zelda exclaimed "You mean-" Time nodded again "So the legends about the calamity having once been a man, a Gerudo man… they are true."

"Don't ask me how he became the new incarnation of Demise's hatred, I do not know. Until I met Sky I didn't even know about Demise. None of us did." Time said, causing everyone to nod and Zelda to look very frustrated "The Princess assigned me the quest of stopping him from taking over Hyrule. We were merely children and our naive efforts only helped him along. I, in particular, was too young to wield the Master Sword and the blade put me to sleep for seven years, during which Ganondorf could reign freely. When I woke, I found that I could return to the past but trapped within a loop, unable to change the future."

"Oh! You must be the hero that was adrift in time, of course!" Zelda realized.

Time continued on "I confronted the tyrant with the help of the Seven Sages, my childhood friend Saria, the Goron patriarch Darunia, Ruto the Princess of the Zora, Nabooru lone wolf of the Gerudo, Impa the Sheikah bodyguard of Hyrule's Princess, Rauru the creator of the Temple of Time and, lastly, Princess Zelda herself."

"Hold on," Zelda piped up "Darunia, Ruto, Nabooru… those sound like-"

"The Divine Beasts. We noticed." Time agreed.

"There were towns named after them in my era. Except for Impa and her charge, that is." Hyrule noted.

"There was a town called Rauru… a hundred years ago." Zelda said guiltily.

Wind tried to distract her "Vah Medoh seems to be named after a Sage from my time, my friend Medli!"

Zelda smiled at the precious younger Link. "Alright then, who's next?"

Now came the part that Wild dreaded; Wind, Twilight and, with some hesitation, Legend all raised their hands.

Zelda blinked, "Oh! All three of you came about together?"

"Not…quite," Legend said with a wince.

"You didn't let Time finish," Twilight said hesitantly, "His journey, it sort of… broke…time."

"…What?" Zelda asked flatly.

"Ooh! Ooh! I can explain!" Wind exclaimed. When no one else stepped up, he began; "Okay, so, at the end of Time's adventure, after Ganon was sealed into the Evil Realm, Time was sent by his Zelda into the past to become a kid again because…what was the reason your Zelda gave?"

"She wanted to give me a chance to live out the childhood that was stolen from me, so she sent me to a past that could move on to a different future and in doing so she hoped to also allow one…iteration of Hyrule to avoid Ganondorf's reign." Time answered.

"Right, that! Anyway, that caused a wrinkle in Hylia's 'grand design'. Because 'Heroes' work by passing on the spirit of the hero. Time going back to his childhood didn't erase the Hyrule that he saved; but it did get rid of him." Wild had to resist the urge to chortle at Zelda's utterly baffled stare. "So, when Ganon broke out of his prison, there wasn't a Hero available to fix the problem. So the Golden Goddesses, Din, Farore, and Nayru had to deal with it themselves." He then rose to his feet gesticulating wildly, "But I guess they're even more out of touch with things than Hylia, because their solution to the problem was to freeze Hyrule in time and hide it under suspended flooding water, first herding people to the highest peaks of the tallest mountains in order to survive! That's the timeline I come from, the world of the Great Sea!" he finished with a proud smirk.

Zelda was left in a stunned silence as she stared at Wind. Finally she asked "I guess you may be the hero that's said to have crossed the seas. What happened then?"

"Oh! Ganondorf escaped from underwater Hyrule and started looking for the descendant of the previous Princess Zelda. He kidnapped my sister by accident. Big mistake." Everybody laughed, except Zelda who was still processing everything "I had help from a boat that eventually turned out to be the King of Hyrule as well as Tetra and her pirate crew, that's the Princess Zelda of my time, by the way, she was using an alias. In the end, I was able to save my sister and had a fight to the death with Ganondorf. I won, evidently."

One of Zelda's eyes twitched "The King… was a boat. And his daughter was a pirate?"

"Oh no, no, no, sorry I should have been more clear, the King was from untold centuries ago, when the flood happened, so he was Tetra's great, great however many times great, grandfather."

"…right, of course." Zelda shook her head "So then Hyrule was saved?"

"Ah, no. The King said it made people greedy and was better off gone, so he sunk it for good. We're looking for another continent to settle on now."

Zelda slowly turned to Wild "Please, tell me he's making all of this up." Paya too had stopped what she was doing and just stared in shock and confusion. Wild shook his head.

"Wild told us his story. Your story, by proxy." Time begun "Please, don't think I don't care for and respect my Princess, but… if it can help you, I believe she would want me to say: whenever should you find yourself questioning your own worth, consider this: you are not the princess that set in motion the events that led to Hyrule ending up at the bottom of the ocean."

"I… thank you." Taking a long moment to collect herself, Zelda wearily turned to Twilight, torn between asking her next question, and staying silent. But, for better or worse, she found a well of courage within herself. "And you?"

Twilight shrugged, "Well, me, Four and Warrior are from the timeline in which Time returned to his childhood. With his future knowledge Time snitched on Ganondorf-"

"Really? Snitched?" Time said with a raised eyebrow.

Twilight shrugged and gave a wink "At the end of a war, Ganondorf was captured and would have been executed but things didn't go according to plan and he was hurriedly thrown into another realm. Way to dump your problems on someone else."

Zelda blinked, would anyone kindly take this seriously?

"About a hundred years later, Ganondorf escaped with help from an ally he made in the other realm and led an invasion on ours. That's where I come in, fighting to lift the veil of Twilight that the invaders shrouded our world in."

"Ah! The glowing embers of Twilight! That's what that verse was about!" Zelda said recalling the words she once spoke.

"Working together with the rightful Princess of the Twilight Realm, we were able to kill both Ganondorf and his ally, the usurper. So… it all ended well" Twilight didn't sound too convinced of his own statement, but no one pressed him about it.

"So you killed Ganondorf in your timeline too? But even then, that was not the end of it, was it? I guess you two had to fight a new embodiment of the malice?" Zelda asked Four and Warrior.

The former was quick to respond "Nope. He too reincarnated and got back to his old tricks right away."

Zelda put her face in her hands "You've got to be kidding me."

"Puts a smile on your face, doesn't it?" Twilight said.

"Not gonna lie, I'm a bit worried about that." Wind mused.

"You should be, leaving the Master Sword at the bottom of the sea." Sky humphed.

"I said I'm sorry!" Wind cried out. Zelda and Paya both decided never to ask Wind any questions about his time ever again.

Four decided to get back to his story "Anyway, I drew the Four Sword and took care of both Vaati and Ganon. The Princess Zelda of my time and the six maidens sealed Ganon into the blade."

Once again, Zelda blinked "You mean- you're talking about the sword you're carrying?"

Four shook his head "Ah, don't worry, no this Four Sword is from Legend's time. He's let me have it since I'm more familiar with it."

"Remember you're only borrowing it, the sword has to go back to its proper time when we all go home. There's enough paradoxes already." Legend noted causing him to nod.

Deciding not to investigate further, Zelda turned towards Warrior expectatly. The latter brushed his hair out of his face "My story, is quite different from the others."

"Here he goes again." Said Twilight.

"For mine," Warrior continued.

"Don't you do it." Wind demanded.

"is a tale-"

"Don't!" Insisted Four.

Warrior held up a shaking fist, his eyes closed "of camaradie and of LOVE!"

All other Links groaned, except for Wind and Four who made gagging noises. Some kind of inarticulate inhaling sound came from Paya's general direction while Zelda's eyes widened "What do you mean?"

"For brevity, it is probably best to start from the beginning, at some point before my time, the attempt was made to keep Ganon from returning by splitting him in four parts and sealing those separately in different eras."

"OH! That's amazing!" Zelda exclaimed, stars in her eyes.

"Sorry to say, it didn't work. Some small part of him managed to get away and stay free, looking for a way to put himself back together. The opportunity came when he found the Guardian of Time, a sorceress whose task was to uphold balance without ever interfering. But the sorceress, she witnessed our history and like a moth to the flame, she fell in love with us."

"Us?" Zelda questioned in confusion.

Warrior nodded "The bearers of the spirit of the hero… or that spirit in and of itself, I suppose."

"Wait, so this guardian of time was in love with… ALL of you?" Zelda, flustered, looked at the men gathered around her, eyes coming to rest on Wild.

"Kyaah!" Everybody turned to look at Paya who was facing a corner with hands on her face. If any of them could have read her mind, they would have found that Warrior's tale had put quite the scandalous image in it. Why, for a moment she imagined herself holding hands with not one but two of the heroes! Not just that, another two had their palms affectionately placed on her shoulders and… and one of them was brushing her hair! She would have to pray a lot more fervently tonight to atone for such self-indulgent thoughts!

Warrior turned back to Zelda "Potentially? I mean, I don't know if she's watched over all of us or just some. Anyway, Ganon slipped into her mind and turned her love for us into obsession and into hatred for… well, for you."

"Me?" Zelda exclaimed, recoling in surprise.

Warrior held up a hand "Not you specifically Princess, all of the Princess Zelda that stood by the side of the heroes in their adventures. She was convinced that the hero and the princess inevitably become romantically involved by the end of their tale."

A knowing sigh came from Paya's corner and if Zelda was flustered before, now she came close to match Mipha's red scales (Wild wasn't much better off, but she failed to notice). "But… there's no record of this… tradition in our history."

"Falling in love with someone doesn't necessarily mean you get your happily ever after." Twilight said somberly, thoughts going back to a princess with hair the color of a sunset.

"Aye." Legend said in agreement.

"Time for one, got hitched to an ordinary farm girl." Wind said, causing the older man to cast him a pointed look "Ah, I mean, an extraordinary farm girl!" he amended, receiving a satisfied smirk in return and a round of chuckling from the others. Paya, hearing this, regarded the seasoned hero with new eyes.

"Right, he was actually closer to marrying the princess of the Zora." Warrior said with a chuckle.

"Really?" Zelda asked, her mind going to a familiar Zora princess.

Time gave something of a shrug "It's a silly story."

"Still the sorceress wasn't so far off." Warrior continued, in response to everyone's observations "I mean, just here we have Sky, who is in a relationship with his Zelda, Four-"

"We're just childhood friends."

He carried on, ignoring the protest "Me, Hyrule who we can count twice,"

"Oh, shut up…" Hyrule said, face palming.

"And… I'm sure there's more still." Warrior stopped himself in time, catching a murderous glare from Wild.

"So many of you came to be romantically involved with your princess…" Zelda said in awe "What did you mean by Hyrule counts for two?"

Hyrule groaned and Legend came to the rescue "Can we just get back to putting this timeline down?"

"Right, so under Ganon's influence, the sorceress waged war against Hyrule throughout multiple eras, my present as well as his time," Warrior said pointing to Sky "his," Time "and his" Twilight. "Both sides gained powerful allies from the other eras and it was only thanks to ours that we ultimately prevailed after Ganondorf resurrected himself. In the end, we were able to seal him again, imprisoned by the Master Sword within its pedestal." Warrior concluded.

Or he thought he did, only to find Paya right in his face "But what about the sorceress? What happened to her?" She asked passionately and wide eyed. Warrior returned her stare, taken aback for a few moments, then Paya's eyes lowered to his lips and she seemed to suddenly realize how close she'd gotten to him. Her face went aflame and she hurriedly scampered away, stuttering apologies.

"Well… since you asked, once Ganondorf had no more use for his pawn and discarded her, she gradually came to regret her choices and ultimately switched sides. She went back to her old life as Guardian of Time."

Done scribbling Zelda looked up, "Okay. What about you?" she asked, turning to Legend "How are you also next after Time?"

He sighed "Honestly, we aren't sure. What I've been taught is that after the prince of thieves, Ganondorf-"

"Prince of thieves?"

Time was quick to answer her "In my era and already for as long as it was commonly remembered, Gerudo lived of thievery."

"They did? I can't imagine that!" Zelda exclaimed.

"Then you probably don't want to know how they procured… boyfriends." Time said pensively.

"Anyway," Legend continued over Zelda's bafflement "after he attempted to conquer Hyrule, he was sealed away by the seven sages in the sacred realm which turned into the dark world, but only at the end of a large conflict, with no hero being mentioned. In fact, it is specifically said that no hero was found to wield the Master Sword."

"That doesn't add up." Zelda said, in realization.

"We can only assume history got really muddled up at some point before my era. It's either that or I come from a timeline branch that diverged even earlier and in which Time did not take the role of the hero. Putting that thought aside and going with the first hypothesis, we've tried to think of several explanations as to what happened and wasn't recorded properly. The first one we considered was that Time did embark on his quest but, uh… ended up getting killed."

"He _what_?!" Zelda blanched, she already had more experience than she cared for with heroes dying.

"The idea is that some version of myself in another branch of the timeline, the circumstances that led to the creation of which we ignore, died late enough into my journey that Ganondorf could still be stopped, albeit not without a large scale war." Time shrugged, "I was the one who suggested the theory. If the hero failed to deliver the world from the threat he set out against, would historians want to record that? Let future generations know that this is a possibility? It makes sense if you put it that way."

"It- it makes sense?!"

"Don't," Wild reached over, rubbing her arm soothingly, "don't think about it too much."

She whirled around, scandalized, "Don't think—How can you say that?!"

"It…honestly doesn't matter," Wild said hesitantly. When he saw her take a sharp breath—no doubt in preparation of a rant—he quickly added, "He's here now so what's the point?"

Zelda grit her teeth, literally shaking with rage. Thankfully, she managed to contain herself, looking expectantly, if dreadingly, at Legend.

"The other theory we considered is that my era may come after Twilight's and Four's" he said pointing to the others, "but not Warrior's."

Exasperated Zelda raised her arms to the ceiling "How? Why?"

"Well, Twilight's journey mostly occurred in secret, with people not even realizing Hyrule was temporarily taken over by invaders from another realm." Legend stated causing Twilight to nod.

"Mhm, when the reincarnation of Ganondorf in my era turned into Ganon, Princess Zelda just referred to him as an 'ancient demon reborn', I didn't know there had been a precedent." Four chimed in.

"So you see," Legend continued "Twilight's quest may have occurred without history taking heed of it and Four left Ganon sealed into the Four Sword. Considering I found that same sword in Ganon's pyramid in the Dark World… if we just assume someone later sealed the sword and him in it within the Dark World and that the events from Time's quest, all of it as he informed the royal family of what happened in the future, got mixed up with Four's, that could explain how history got to the way I was taught it. I mean, Four is a hero, but he never did get the Master word."

"Okay," Zelda said slowly "I'm following… I think. But what about Warrior's era?"

"In his quest, Ganon ended up sealed under the Master Sword; he was definitely not there when I got it. Moreover, there is no chance that a conflict as massive as the one he was in disappeared from the history books, especially when it would have to be the closest to my era. So we would have to presume the timeline split at some point after Four's era leading to either his or mine. No matter how you look at it, we end up with three timelines. Considering both Warrior and I have had adventures that mucked time up extensively, it doesnt seem that unlikely." Legend concluded.

"But of course you did… " Zelda pinched the bridge of her nose, her face scrunched up "in fact how about we move on to what actually happened in your era?"

With a nod Legend continued "Over time, the kingdom was rebuilt, but, surprise surprise, Ganon found a way out through an alter-ego of his in Hyrule, yet another thing that just doesn't make sense, if you ask me, I mean-"

"Rabbit hole," every other Hero called out.

"Ah, shut up," Legend groused. "Anyway, before I was even involved, he sacrificed six of the descendants of the Sages, and then the last one, Princess Zelda, right in front of me."

"The princess of your era was killed?!" Zelda shrieked, agahst. How did they even manage without her sealing power?

"Wait, let me finish, in doing so he would soon be able to break the seal, but I went to the Dark World and with help from the spirits of the descendants was able to beat him. Then I used the Golden Power of the Gods to fix everything."

That struck a note with her "Oh, the Golden Power! Legends speak of it! So you're the hero that needed to use it. But how was everything fixed?"

"Well, obviously- hold on… Guys! I just realized everyone so far told their story without bringing up the Triforce at all! How'd that happen?" Legend shouted to the rest of the group.

Time scoffed "Perhaps because the darn thing is more trouble than it's worth?"

Wind nodded "You don't have to tell me."

"Absolutely." Twilight.

"I'm… inclined to agree." Warrior.

There were dissenting voices though, namely Sky "Hey now…"

And Legend "It's not the Triforce's fault you guys weren't able to make the best of it. Didn't you use it to seal Ganon away, Warrior?"

"I used it to resolve a situation that wouldn't have come to exist if not for it. I call it even."

Time pointed to Sky "Correct me if I'm wrong, but did the Triforce actually get rid of Demise for you?"

Sky fidgeted "…kinda?"

Twilight shook his head "If you knew how much conflict that thing has sparked over the eras…"

Hyrule leaned forward "Well, in my era it was used for good, for Hyrule's salvation even and-"

"Could any of you help me understand what you're all arguing about?" Zelda shouted to be heard over the confusion that had erupted.

Legend coughed to attract her attention "I'll do the honors then. The power of the Gods, the Triforce consists of three parts, Power, Wisdom and Courage. Each part grants the wielder the respctive virtue in relation to what their goal is and the intensity of their desire. However when they are brought together in one person's possession, it can grant any wish, so long as the desire for it is sufficiently strong."

"I wished to annihilate Demise… but then I got screwed over by time travel." Sky ventured.

Time followed suit "I believe some of the wars before my time were fought over it, but only Ganondorf managed to get to it when the Princess Zelda of my time suggested we open the doorway to its resting place, to use it against him. It split when he touched it because his heart was not balanced, leaving him with just power while the Princess and I were chosen by wisdom and courage respectively."

"The King used it to flood Hyrule definitively." Wind added.

"It kept the Princess and me from turning into helpless spirits in the curtain of Twilight, but it was also the reason Ganondorf survived his execution." Twilight grimaced.

"Like I said, the war across the ages never would have happend without it, but ultimately it allowed us to seal Ganon again." Contributed Warrior.

"Well, you guys should have been more daring because I asked it to undo all the harm Ganon caused to my Hyrule and it worked out perfectly. Resurrected the maidens, including the Princess, her father the King, my uncle, all of the guards I killed and-"

"Wait WHAT?" Zelda's eyes bugged out.

Legend stared right back "All the castle guards had been brainwashed by Ganon's alter-ego and ordered to kill me. My first adventure wasn't one for the faint of heart, Princess."

"I- I see…" She turned towards Wild "But Link, do you realize what this means? With this Golden Power we could bring back all the people that died a hundred years ago!"

Wild grimaced and Time made a pained sound "Bad idea, Princess."

She turned to him, torn between being sad or angry upon hearing that "Why? How can you say so?"

Time took a deep breath "Suppose you bring back to life everyone who died. You have suddenly more than doubled the population. Will there be resources, such as housing, readily available for eveyone? Also these people have been dead for a hundred years. They became spirits, some or perhaps most surely moved on to the afterlife. Suddenly they are dragged back and told to live together with their grandchildren or those of people they knew who are now older than they are. Some may be grateful, some may think this an arbitrary perversion of the natural order of things."

"But… but what if we made it so they never died?" Zelda asked, unwilling to give up so easily.

"You could travel back in time. You wouldn't even need the Triforce for that, then maybe use it to prevent the disaster. It could work." The old veteran sighed "Princess, walking into this village I saw two little girls. One was running around and the other was tending to a cooking pot. Do you know them?"

Zelda blinked confused "Of course I do, Koko and Cottla, the adorable daughters of one of the guards outside. Why do you ask?"

Time pointed his one eye at her like a guardian taking aim "To get your wish… would you be willing to kill them?"

"What?! NO! Why would you ask me that?!" She screamed.

"After I returned to the past, once time caught up to when the second part of my journey occurred, I noticed many little children that did not exist in the other future. You're talking undoing the deaths of people from a hundred years ago. What if one of those people married one of Koko and Cottla's parents? Why even that girl" Time said suddenly pointing at Paya who froze like a scared deer "might never have existed if not for the deaths that occurred a hundred years ago. And remember what happened the last time a princess split the timeline."

Zelda deflated "I understand. You're right."

The hero nodded "Take it from me, if you're not absolutely forced to, do not screw with time."

"That's a privilege reserved solely to one red head." Warrior jived earning himself yet another slap on the head.

"Well anyway" Legend started again, eager to move on "apparently killing people lost its meaning by the time I was born, because-"

"Let me guess, reincarnation?" Zelda ventured.

"Not even! I'm told that while I was away, Ganon's malice managed to drag someone from another dimention who could connect to the magic held within the land of Hyrule itself and by draining that power Ganon was able to resurrect himself ahead of time. He could have done so on his own, but it would have taken much longer. Wasn't the best of plans though, because that same person used the power of the land to kill him again. Whoops!" Legend said chuckling "And as if that wasn't enough, when I finally did come back, much later" Hyrule made a face at this but didn't interrupt "the Triforce sent me to two foreign lands where Ganon's surrogate mothers-"

"You're going to shout rabbit hole if I ask, aren't you?"

"You bet. Anyway, his surrogate mothers were attempting to once again resurrect him early. After a whole lot of messing with time and nature, that did come to pass, but they did him more harm than good because they messed up and drove him mad. Seemingly permanently. I killed him AGAIN and that was the end of that."

"Thank the Goddess" Zelda said, visibly relieved. "When you said the Zelda of your time was killed, I wondered how Ganon could possibly have been dealt with. I guess after Wind and Twilight's tales I should have known."

"Yeah, when Wild was telling us about your story I wasn't sure why your powers failing to awaken was such a big deal," Legend said, getting a dirty look from Wild "I thought just keep stabbing him until he's dead. But Wild said Ganon has become some kind of smoke monster so… I don't know maybe that wasn't an option for you."

Zelda nodded and turned to Hyrule "I'm sorry but… I must admit I'm curious: why is it that you can be counted twice? With regard to your relationship with your princess?"

Before Hyrule had any chance to respond Warrior spoke up "Oh, you may find it hard to believe Princess, but this lucky guy has gotten not one but two Zeldas to romance!"

Several things happend at once. Hyrule groaned, Zelda and Paya both flushed bright crimson, the former gaping at the aforementioned boy and the latter, producing a strange whimper, gave up trying to pretend she was working and hastily retreated to her room, trying to fight the notion she somehow had not contemplated until just now of what it might be like if the Princess was willing to share the hero with her.

"Stop projecting your perverted fantasy on me." Hyrule accused "You make it sound weirder than it is." to which Warrior raised his hands in feigned innocence.

"Alright, before I get to shed some light on… that, I should tell you what I've heard happened between my time and Legend's. Mind you though, I'm no historian by any definition." Hyrule warned "Apparently Ganon revived again, but a seal was put on him in time to prevent any trouble. However, a wizard from another dimention-"

"Again. What's with all these other dimentions…?" Zelda mused.

"Beats me. Anyway, this wizard desiring power released Ganon and managed to possess him."

"SERIOUSLY?!" Zelda shouted. This made the Yiga clan sound like amateurs.

Hyrule shrugged "I don't know. I heard that in this other dimention they no longer had their Triforce and the world itself was falling apart because of it, so the plan was to steal ours. In the end the successor to the Legendary Hero," He said gesturing to his friend "killed the possessed Ganon and used the Triforce to bring back the one that belonged to the other world."

Hyrule made a pause, gathering his thoughts "I don't know what became of the wizard's spirit, but in time Ganon, of course, resurrected himself. He regained the Triforce of Power and unleashed an army of monsters against Hyrule. The Princess Zelda of my time was able to split the wisdom part and hide it before she was captured and it fell to me to put them back together and kill Ganon. Several years later-"

"Hold on, it's been several years since you killed Ganon? How old were you?" Zelda questioned.

"Oh, about eleven." Hyrule said nonchalantly.

"Really?" Zelda voiced her surprise.

"Hey, you didn't have that reaction to my story," complained Wind. Of course she had been too shocked by everything else to focus on that detail. He puffed out his chest "I'll have you know I'd just turned twelve."

"Me, I was thirteen." Four contributed.

"He didn't even use the Master Sword." Time said motioning towards Hyrule with a movement of his head.

Zelda just blinked at all these child-aged Ganon slayers and Hyrule continued his story. "So yeah, when I turned sixteen this mark appeared on my hand and I was told I was magically chosen to awaken a Princess Zelda that had been put under a sleeping spell ages ago. To do that I had to retrieve the last part of the Triforce, courage, which had been hidden away by her father. That's why she was cursed, her brother wanted to know where the Triforce was and sent a wizard, who happened to be more evil than previously believed, to extract the information from her. Anyway, I made it and with the Triforce I was able to wake her and protect Hyrule from the monsters Ganon left behind. And well, I'll just say it, it was love at first sight for the both of us." He concluded timidly.

"You conveniently omitted romancing the other one first." Warrior poked.

"We were kids and we kinda fancied each other. We were living a fairytale, okay? We both grew out of it before I even knew about the other princess."

Shaking her head, Zelda finished her notetaking. "Well then, that was…" she trailed off pursing her lips.

"It's chaotic, yes," Twilight said flippantly.

She nodded fervently. "But, wait…by our time, we've apparently got some legends and records of events from more than one—"

"We've already been over this with Wild," Sky said with a short chuckle.

"Best we can figure," Warrior picked up, "is that some higher power got tired of the multiple timelines and forced everything back together."

"Ehh-?!"

"It's gotta be." Wind exclaimed "You have both Zoras and Ritos, do you understand how impossible that is?"

"Why would it be 'impossible'?" The Princess asked worriedly because this was Wind and she had already learned to expect a headache.

"Because the Zora turned into the Rito! That's how they came to be!"

"Say what?! No, that's it, you're making fun of me, you have to be."

"I don't think he is Princess," Warrior intervened "I've been all over my timeline and I never encountered a passing mention of the Rito. They seem to only exist in this era and in his."

"But this doesn't make any sense! How can his timeline have merged with the others and led to the one we are in? We're not underwater, you know!?" Zelda said, looking around for a more solid answer.

Time decided to help "I have experience of something like that happening on a much smaller scale. On my second adventure, I found myself in a parallel dimention" Zelda groaned but didn't interrupt "and I only had three days to save the world. The Goddess of Time allowed me to go back to the start of those three days however many times was necessary to resolve the situation. I thought every time I was rewriting the events of those three days, but when the fourth day finally came, I found that all the good I had done in the different three days cycles had been preserved. To some of the people there, it must have seemed like I had been in multiple places at the same time. And of course, for every good outcome that was kept, a bad one was discarded. So I'm not surprised you have a Divine Beast named after a sage from Wind's era and no record of the land ever being flooded, or that the bloodline of the Hylians is still going strong despite diluting itself to nothing in two of the timelines."

Zelda just sighed. "I…I believe I'll go…compile what I've learned." With that said, she quickly fled upstairs.

"…Think we broke her?" Wild knew Wind didn't mean anything by it, but he still glared at his younger counterpart.

**/+/+/+/+/**

**A/N: Poor, poor Zelda indeed.**

**Extra very much non-canonical "post credit" scene:**

"Thank goodness we didn't tell her about Master Hand" Twilight said looking at the stairs.

"She probably wouldn't have liked to hear about Wild fighting side by side with Legend's Zelda" Time considered.

Not for the first time, Legend pointed two fingers at his eyes and then at Wild.


End file.
